Mertzon City Council March 16 2026

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting

The engineers for IC ISD have to contend with rainwater runoff from 4 different sources in order to make good use of the new detention pond at 4th and W. Fleming. The arrows show the direction of the flow from those sources. The detention pond on 2nd street has multiple sources as well. The school sits on a hill between two different basins.

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A. Agenda Analysis

1. 2nd Street Drainage, item 5: I posted several aerial photos of this area when this matter was first on the agenda back at the February 2 2026 Council meeting. Since then I have confirmed that the District is going to convert the tennis court area at 4th and Fayette (Immediately west of the Ibarra's) into paved parking. This will send even more rain water down Fayette towards the proposed detention pond at 3rd and Fayette.

   Another consideration for the Council is whether any proposed flood diversion plan is scalable for future IC ISD growth. My guess is there will likely be another bond in 4-6 years. This means more flooding for the same streets.

2. The rest: The remainder of the agenda is the stock agenda for the Council.

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The concrete is now set on the west side of the new IC ISD transportation facility, and it is more transparent where the water is designed to drain. The stormwater runoff will drain into the City owned alley and go down to join the runoff on 4th Street.

B. Meeting Review

1. 2nd Street drainage, item 5: The engineer wasn't able to make this meeting, so this was tabled until the next meeting. This is probably best given what I am learning about the new drainage project at 4th and W. Fleming...as shown by the pictures on this page. As it stands today, March 17, 2026, Parkhill and Gallagher have very likely worsened the flood drainage because the street diversion will be easily overwhelmed when it rains. Bottom line: this means the water from the new transportation facility will flood my residence and increase water flow on W. Fleming. Also see my Commentary below.

2. Waste water treatment plant, item 6: Hibbs and Todd did in fact pay for the aerator that went down. This came up in a prior meeting when it was disclosed that the delays in funding of the bonds for upgrades to the facility were costing the City extra in repairs for equipment that was outdated. The discussion at this meeting raised the issue of whether Hibbs and Todd should also pay for the installation of the aerator, as that remains unclear. (They should. Installation costs are part of the delays.)

   
   

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The ~2% increase in grade where the arrow points is not going to be enough. I predict that as little as 1/2” rain will overwhelm this diversion system on 4th St.

C. Commentary

1. See my Commentary at C 1 here for more on the drainage of the other flood detention pond at 4th and W Fleming.

2. Without any kind of flood plan or building code enforcement by the City of Mertzon, it is solely up to the residents to advocate for themselves. The meager street water diversion in the picture above is the signal that I have to keep after it. Tomorrow, March 18, 2026, makes this a 10 year effort.
   

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Copyright 2026 G. Noelke